Huawei G620S review

Huawei's G620S is all about its big screen, 4G and bargain price. It might not be flashy, but it is worth your consideration.

Screen and chassis

Style-wise this mid-range phone is not in the same league as the likes of Huawei's own wafer-thin, aluminium-clad P8. At 8.5mm thick, however, it won't create too much of a bulge in the pocket and even if the textured, faux-leather plastic backing isn't particularly exciting, it's at least practical.

The 5-inch LCD display offers an HD resolution of 1,280x720 pixels -- the least we'd expect from a quality phone these days. While the colours might not pop to the same extent as on the best phone screens, it's bright and sharp enough to pass muster whether you're browsing the web or watching movies. The model is running the Huawei Emotion 2.3 user interface on top of Android 4.4 KitKat, which isn't the latest version of Google's software, but won't disappoint either. Huawei's software is not as stylish or swish as HTC's Sense, but it's straightforward and doesn't seem to slow things down. Opinion is still divided on the lack of an app tray -- beloved of Android users, a mystery to iPhone fans -- but we didn't find it much of a hindrance.

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Software and processor

The quad-core processor is clocked at 1.2GHz and backed by 1GB RAM. Not bad in other words, certainly at this price, though it can feel a little sluggish on occasion, especially when you've got a clutch of apps running at once. Our AnTuTu benchmark test delivered a score of 19,408, which puts it in similar company to Motorola's budget-priced hero the Moto G, but well behind high performers of the high-end phones, which regularly return results around three times greater than this.

Photography

Gallery: Huawei G620S review

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The 8-megapixel camera includes autofocus and an LED flash, plus a range of filters and modes including Panorama, HDR, Smart photo enhancement and Best Photo, which takes up to ten quick snaps so you can choose the best one. Add in some editing features and that's a decent suite of capabilities, especially for a budget phone. Picture quality is pretty decent overall with a good level of detail, although colours can occasionally appear oversaturated, especially if the light is less than perfect. There's also a 2-megapixel camera on the front for selfies and video calls. The G620S hasn't quite taken the leap towards quality selfie shooters but at least it's not an embarrassing afterthought.

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There's 8GB of memory on board, and you'll probably want to bump this up by a further 32GB via microSD card. Battery life held up well too, delivering close to two full days of steady use.

Conclusion

The Huawei G620S manages to cram a relatively decent set of components, plus 4G into its budget-priced casing. With an HD 5-inch screen, quad-core processor and a passable camera, it ticks a lot of boxes for the money.